CEO Journey: Grounded in Grassroots

Carrie Alderton speaks about her interfaith journey beginning with her studies in Scotland, moving to work with refugees in Serbia, joining the Faith and Belief Forum during the pandemic – and now leading the organisation from the helms while remaining firmly grounded in F&BF’s grassroots work as new CEO of the Faith and Belief Forum.

In September 2021 I joined the Faith & Belief Forum. The organisation was emerging from COVID times.

When I first met some of my colleagues then, we were still doing the awkward dance, of whether you shake hands, bump elbows, or do a little nod. Although we couldn’t follow the pre-COVID social cues, I could tell that this was a radically warm and open team.

The Faith and Belief Forum has changed considerably over the past 4 years – but we’re still deeply embedded in the grassroots communities we serve. That is one of the reasons I admired F&BF from a distance for many years – ever since I came across them while studying Religious Studies at Edinburgh University (back then of course F&BF was called the 3 Faiths Forum). Here I connected with local faith and belief groups, attended services and celebrations, interned with the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, and ran dialogue sessions with students from multiple societies.

I was drawn to the deep understanding, and long running resilient relationships, born through interfaith work. And I was drawn to these spaces that helped me to understand my own spirituality more deeply and transformed the way I viewed the world. Throughout my academic study, and involvement and work with interfaith groups in Scotland, I admired from afar the clarity of vision of F&BF, the professionalism of the way it worked, and the way it told its impact with its beneficiaries.

My career has spanned project coordination in interfaith charities, delivering access to education courses with the University of Glasgow, supporting event and online delivery for multiple Scottish charities, and before the pandemic, managing an educational and safe space with refugees and asylum seekers in Belgrade, Serbia, for two and a half years.

This is where my passion for equality in education, and celebration of faiths, beliefs and cultures, converged. In a space where many refugees had been stranded for many years, since the closure of the Balkan Route, without access to public services, education was a lifeline.

It helped them to prepare for the country they were aiming to claim asylum in.

Student centred education helped them to feel some power, on a route and an experience which so often strips people of their personal autonomy. And, most of all, it created a space where people could feel at home, feel their voice was important, and their beliefs and experiences were respected.

When COVID lockdowns persuaded me to return to the UK, to be close to family, whilst supporting multiple charities as a freelancer, I was searching for my next step: something that would combine my experiences in informal education, skills in project management, and passion for the celebration of faith and belief diversity.

I looked again to the organisation I had always wanted to work for, and saw that F&BF were advertising for the role of Manager for the Education & Learning team. Entering this role felt like the culmination of skills, passion and experience I was hoping for. Once in the role, many of the same feelings I had in Serbia came back when I spoke to children and young people on our programmes, about the transformational power of our work in their classrooms, at their universities. I have witnessed young people building confidence in their identity, and finding their voice, in settings they previously felt they did not belong.

Over the four and a half years I have worked for F&BF, the UK and global context has changed dramatically, the organisation has followed suit, and my role has changed and evolved too (from Programme Manager, to Head of Programmes, to Interim CEO). The UK is facing one of our most divided and polarised times, especially when it comes to faith and belief. Identity and grievance is being weaponised, and faith and belief communities are facing the brunt of online polarisation, political scapegoating, and rising levels of hate. We are in an environment where belonging (or who belongs and who doesn’t) is being used to stoke division.

In my opinion, and in my experience, the only answer to the increasing complexity of division is simple: connection.

With each step up at F&BF, I have been excited to continue working with our incredible team, to shape an organisation that is stronger equipped to evolve and handle these complex challenges. Our strengths are in:

• Our culture of constantly questioning, interrogating and iterating our work, to ensure we are having the maximum impact possible with our beneficiaries
• Deep empathy, curiosity and interest in each other as humans first, which extends to the way we work both internally and externally.
• The power of strong, transparent, and resilient relationships, with organisations,  communities and supporters.
• Our commitment to ensuring our work is informed and shaped by those we work with, particularly young people, and those in marginalised faith and belief communities.
• Our amazing ability to stay hopeful, and believe there is a possible future, where UK society is shaped by respect and love across lines of difference

After 7 months as Interim CEO – including successfully delivering a national Inter Faith Week with partners and MHCLG funding, engaging new and existing partners and supporters, successful delivery of public engagement events, and the drafting of our new Theory of Change – I am honoured and humbled that the trustees of F&BF have asked me to become the permanent CEO.

From studying interfaith and being a young interfaith activist, to running the UK’s largest interfaith organisation – the honour of this stewardship and weight of its responsibility is not lost on me.

I am committed to ensuring that we remain true to our values in everything we do: empathy, connection, inclusivity and innovation. And I am delighted to work with you all, our beneficiaries, partners, supporters, advocates and advisors, to shape the next chapter of this groundbreaking organisation.

A Message from the Chair of Trustees

It is my pleasure to announce that the trustees of the Faith & Belief Forum have appointed Carrie Alderton as the Chief Executive Officer, to lead us into our next chapter as an organisation. Since becoming Interim CEO 7 months ago, Carrie has successfully led a restructure, has made great strides in securing the long term financial stability of the organisation, and has raised our public profile through leading on initiatives such as the Inter Faith Week for schools initiative which reached over 700,000 students around the country.

In the next year, we are reinvigorating our organisation, both in terms of what we do and how we do it. We are making developments to our governance structure to ensure the voices of our beneficiaries, and the voices of the diverse faith and belief communities we work with, are brought into our decision-making processes. We are launching a strategic review, to ensure our organisation continues to be at the cutting edge of interfaith work in the UK, presenting a coherent and convincing case that building connection fights the forces of division. We are expanding our work to new areas of the UK, whilst prioritising strengthening our most impactful core projects in schools, universities and communities.

At this watershed moment, both for interfaith work in the UK and for our organisation, we are fully confident in Carrie’s ability to lead the charge with empathy, skill and passion. We wish her all the best in this important new role.

Michael Ziff
Chair of Trustees, F&BF